Stanley Wanlass-Professor Emeritus, B.F.A./ M.A./ A.F.A.S., taught at numerous universities in the United States, Canada, and abroad including the European Art Academy in Paris and the Université de Grenoble, in the French Alps. He is president of Renaissance International, Inc. a design studio based in Oregon. Wanlass, who resides in Oregon and Utah, is an internationally known sculptor, designer, and painter. He also creates heroic bronze historical monuments.
In 1976 Wanlass sculpted a 22-foot monument for the United States of America Bicentennial which is located in the City of Everett Washington. Then in 1982 Wanlass sculpted a heroic monument "Arrival" celebrating Lewis & Clark's sojourn to the Pacific Ocean. It is located at the National Memorial for Lewis & Clark at Fort Clatsop on the north Oregon Coast. This was the first of many Lewis & Clark Monuments Wanlass sculpted for the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial including "End of the Trail" at the turn-around on the beach at Seaside, Oregon, "Mark of Triumph", Lewis & Clark Monument in downtown Long Beach, Washington and "Clark's Tree" erected on the sands of the Pacific Ocean, north of Cape Disappointment on the Long Beach Peninsula, Washington. This monument is a twenty-five-foot bronze tree that marks the furthest northwest point traveled by Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery. The Muhlenberg Monument "Man of Vision" is located at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. And, The Rockwell Monument "The Protector" an iconic pioneer monument is located in the Legacy (Hutchings Museum) Sculpture Park, Lehi, UT.
Wanlass is also famous for his limited edition automotive bronze sculptures echoing his love for the automobile which he has collected, restored, and raced since the mid-fifties. His collection of automobiles varies from early Alfas and Bugattis to Brooklands race cars, Indy cars, Ferraris, and '32 Ford roadsters. His automotive sculptures and paintings echo his eclectic automobile collection and are represented in the most prestigious museums and private collections worldwide. His historical monuments are located at national memorials, universities and public places nation-wide.
Wanlass has always had a passion for cars. As a child, he sculpted them out of soap bars. During the '50s as a young hot rod enthusiast, he built two 1932 Fords which he showed and raced. To support his automotive pursuits he striped, flamed, and scalloped local hot rods and customs.
Wanlass bronzes are called "rolling-sculpture" by some and "just plain sensuous" by others. The Detroit News says "Wanlass bronzes seem to be moving despite being trapped in bronze." The great Peter Helck calls Wanlass "the finest sculptor of the automobile", while Automobile Quarterly considers Wanlass "the ranking sculptor of the automobile.”
His 900 page Masters Thesis was a study of (among other things) the history of automotive emblem design. He is currently writing a new book of short stories titled “Rearview Mirror - Reflections on a Journey”.
Wanlass does extensive research on each of his artworks. However, he takes license with the facts if it will help his composition. "I change whatever I need to in order to establish a symbol. Facts bore me. I'm more interested in truth." He feels comfortable stretching history and condensing time and space to bring together a dramatic depiction of the spirit of the subject...a symbol, a gestalt, a truth. "Cold exactitude isn't art, spirit and form are more important. Content and meaning are also important, however, form (structure) is the first consideration. Good design is the structure that supports the statement. If the form and statement successfully interact a symbol is born. It becomes more than the sum of its parts."
"It is through these symbols, truths of the past that we are better able to understand our time and ourselves. We are comfortable with the known drawing on our knowledge of the past is how we decipher the present. I feel that NOW is a more important statement to make than THEN. I make statements about NOW using THEN."
Stanley believes "The automobile is the only really new significant art form of the 20th century. For thousands of years man relied on the horse and wagon for transportation. Then this contraption comes along and revolutionizes the world."
Wanlass is a hopeless idealist and romantic. "I believe in the God-given genius of certain individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible. I feel a responsibility to history, a great debt to those that came before me who improved the world to a point that I might have the opportunity to create. Jefferson stated that 'he was a warrior so that his son could be a farmer so that his son could be a poet'. Life is short and art is long. I would like to leave something edifying, of significant beauty a tribute to the spirit, dignity, and excellence of man.”
